Voting postponed: Contenders in Sanghar frown at delay in polls

Ruling PPP was allegedly fearing defeat at the hands of PML-F in this district

HYDERABAD:

The postponement of the local government (LG) elections in Sanghar has drawn a disapproving reaction from the two top contenders — Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and Pakistan Muslim League-Functional (PML-F).

The PPP is, however, argued to be beneficiary of the Election Commission of Pakistan's (ECP) decision, which is based on security concerns.

"Sanghar has been chosen [for deferral] due to its proximity with Khairpur [where 12 people were killed outside a polling station in Daraza] and [the] fear of spread of a reaction to any violence erupting in Sanghar to several neighbouring districts," explained the ECP's joint secretary for local government elections, Attaur Rehman, as he spoke to The Express Tribune from Islamabad over the phone.



ECP officials met in Islamabad on Saturday to review the law and order situation for the November 19 LG polls, especially in five of the 15 districts in lower Sindh. The returning officers from these five districts — Sanghar, Badin, Tharparkar, Umerkot and Naushero Feroz — were also called in the meeting, which was chaired by the ECP chairperson and attended, among others by the Sindh chief secretary and the Sindh police IG.

"We didn't get enough army companies for deployment in the very sensitive districts," said Rehman. "Therefore, we decided to move whatever troops we got to Badin."

Earlier, Sindh home minister Anwar Siyal spoke to the media in Sanghar, where he said that two army companies have been given for the district's security besides the Rangers personnel whose number he did not specify.

Unhappy contestants

PPP's district Sanghar president Haji Ali Hassan Hingorjo objected to the ECP decision. "Our preparation was complete," he told The Express Tribune. "The government [provincial and district administration] was also ready. The home minister was also in Sanghar today and he seemed prepared."

He contended that the delay will not favour the PPP in the district. "We have been running the campaign for months but now the tempo has broken," he said.

The PML-F, on the contrary, views the decision as a strategy of the ruling PPP, which wants to stagger the polls in both the crucial districts of Sanghar and Badin so that it can manipulate the elections. "The PPP began to see its defeat in the three days of our sit-ins attended by thousands of people in Sanghar and feared a reaction [by the people] to the Daraza killings in our favour," claimed MPA Nusrat Sehar Abbasi.



"It would be a great shame for the PPP if it loses the elections in Sanghar and Badin, which it managed to win in the rigged 2013 general elections," she said. "So now, we have this new strategy being played out with the ECP's help."

The PML-F and all other opposition parties in Sindh demanded the army's deployment as soon as the LG elections were announced. They also kept complaining of the returning officers' partiality in favour of the PPP's candidates because the ROs were mostly taken from officials of the Sindh government. Abbasi said her party rejects the ECP's decision and demands elections in Sanghar on the same date.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 15^th, 2015.